STOP WILD COLLECTING

[Dr.Fumanchu]

All your wild corals are belong to us............

[hilk]

http://www.asiandiver.com/editorial/editor...mp;grp=Features

 

The Aquarium Trade

Coastal communities learn that their reefs need protection

 

In cities, there are impressive commercial-scale aquaria, even some with captive orcas and dolphins. But there are also a host of smaller tanks and collections — in grocery mega-stores, office reception areas, hotel lobbies, the entranceways of restaurants and homes. Where do all those trapped fish come from?

 

Many in the diving industry have seen the dwindling of fish in countries like the Philippines and Indonesia over the past few decades. There are many reasons for this, such as coastal development, bomb fishing and coral bleaching, but the demand for tropical reef fish has also played a part.

 

Fishy Business

About 98 per cent of the tropical fish in the world’s aquaria are wild-caught. Experts estimate that somewhere between 20 to 24 million fish are traded per year, creating a retail industry valued at about US$3 billion. Among the most commonly exported fish families are the clownfish, angelfish, butterflyfish and surgeonfish. Add to that 140 species of corals and over 500 species of invertebrates, and it’s hardly surprising that the industry is taking a terrible toll on the ocean.

 

The diving at Kelebit, Bali, does not seem much affected by any of these threats, yet. But not far west along the north coast, the effect is crystal clear. The diving near the town of Les, only an hour’s drive from Kelebit, is dramatically different. Corals have suffered the impact of the marine aquarium trade for years and now, the local community is stuck with a dramatic reduction in fish caught for export as well as for food.

 

But the people have responded. "Les village is the best example of aquarium fishing I have ever seen," says Josef Stringer, an ornamental fish importer from Switzerland. "I was one of the first ones to speak out against my own industry," he says, proud of his beliefs. "But at least here, I can be sure of receiving quality fish with no cyanide." In the past, the fishermen of the village used small squirt bottles filled with dilute sodium cyanide to catch fish. Armed with the poison, locals would dive deep before squirting the cyanide into the cracks and crevices of the reef. The cyanide made collection easy since the dissolved chemical stuns fish on contact.

 

Tragically however, the cyanide persists, settles on coral, and kills the reef. The practice remains widespread in South-east Asia, but slowly, small community efforts are beginning to make a difference.

 

First Hand Experience

I gear up to have a look at the new fishing methods for myself. A tiny outrigger, only about seven feet long and two feet wide, takes me to a reef just off Les beach. Jumping from the rickety vessel into the blue, the first thing I notice is the damage. Coral rubble is everywhere, the skeletal remains of a once-thriving ecosystem. Nonetheless, some corals are still present, along with a smattering of reef fish. The local fishers get to work. They dive down carrying small, fine-meshed nets with tiny weights along one edge and floats along the opposite edge.

 

Carefully, the men corral the fish, gently steering them into the small nets. I wonder if all this effort isn’t a case of "too little too late". The reef is so fragmented that it is difficult to refer to it as a reef anymore; but the coral will grow back, if it's given the chance. Topside, the fish are transferred into small bags and prepared for shipping to the US, Asian and European aquarium markets. Though the diving fishermen are paid reasonably well for the fish, it is a drop in the bucket compared to what their now-damaged reef was once capable of providing. The Les villagers have learned the hard way that a coral reef needs to be taken care of, if it is to provide both food and boost the economy.

 

Protect and Empower

I learned of these fishermen from the Marine Aquarium Council (MAC) website, set up by an organisation that seeks to reform the aquarium trade. The MAC has created a set of standards that diving fishermen like those at Les, need to follow in order to sell "MAC-certified" fish. It promotes a cyanide-free approach to aquarium fishing and a best-practices approach to the whole trade, from reef to retail, as well as advocating protection for some reefs.

 

The central idea is that concerned buyers of aquarium fish around the world, including the everyday home aquarist, can now buy reef fish that have been obtained through non-destructive methods. But is the MAC eco-stamp finally the answer? Can the industry really change its ways? Clearly, the solution to protecting the reefs is not simply to shut down the entire aquarium trade in the hopes that something else will come along for the people in villages like Les.

 

Instead, aquaria can help coastal peoples to see the true value of what sits on their doorsteps, and to empower them to protect their reefs. In clear water back at Batu Kelebit, where I am trying to blot out my memories of the shattered reefs off Les, I conclude that projects like the MAC cannot provide an instant solution, but with the help of consumers in distant cities — whether they keep fish as a hobby or a profession — start to support the fishermen who are making a good effort. Maybe together, they can offer the long-term hope that we will be able to keep seeing these marine beauties in the future.

[Caesar777]

Nice article. I'm all for protection of species--no doubt!

 

One excellent project I mentioned earlier is mariculture, where instead of just "smash n' grab" and "a nickel a coral", the native people only take the tips of corals--which grow back quickly--and grow them out in sectioned off areas. It promotes so many good values, the most obvious one being less impact on the reefs! One of our suppliers goes through Walt Smith, which does a lot of this mariculture, but our customers don't like to pay more for AQ colonies; most seem to not care, but then again, the SPS guys buy one of each, grow it out, and sell the frags, so that's nice that one wild-caught colony can support a fair-sized section of hobbyists. Still, we keep at it. Soft corals like leathers have, as far as i know, little or no limits, and so they're another coral that, while fast-growing, can definitely be dented in population with such little regulation, and these are another commonly-AQ coral. Green finger leathers, toadstools, etc. Very nice.

 

Don't get me wrong, I know there's an impact, but it just doesn't compare to everything else people do to the reefs. Did you know that the USA banned the production and use of PCBs--a clear, oily chemical with a thousand-year half-life, heavily carcinogenic and fat-soluble--but much of the rest of the world does not, so the various industries using this product simply sold it to third-world countries where it wasn't outlawed. PCBs are still being used today, leaking into groundwater, dumped into the ocean, and killing our marine mammals and top predators (it builds up the longer an animal lives nad the more animals it eats). I'm always one for being fair and even. Hoenstly, the restrictions get tighter every year on many corals and fish, and like Itell my customers, I think it's great. I'd hate to see the only Blastomussa, for example--a slow-growing, beautiful coral with ever-stricter CITES requirements--in our own aquaria, and none in the wild. Don't think that I don't feel that same disappointment that you do; I'm just not as disallusioned like the OP.

[clifford513]

@ Fumanshu!

 

Great article, btw. We all need to care and educate ourselves.

[SeeDemTails]

The world sucks, this is the last good genertation anyway....even if a reef was never touched again, they will still be gone in 60 years for other reasons like global warming.

 

We can all do a little bit, but no matter how much we do we cant change the fact that we are destroying earth.

 

I feel bad for my kids....

[acroman]

what about the urchin disease that killed 99% of the diadema in the caribbean? the diadema died, macroalgae grew, and eroded the corals... sever reef decline. as far as i know, this hasnt been directly linked to us.

As far as the impacts of the hobby on reefs, there are much bigger impacts such as overfishing. in some places natives will sell you a clownfish-kebab with 5 or 6 cooked clowns or damsels for $1.00 American.

There are definately impacts: in 1997, 500,000 coral colonies were imported to the United States and Germany. With the trade growing 20-30% per year, ornamental collection has huge impacts.

We also must point fingers at the "other" ornamental trade: the dead coral market. I have no data on what that market is doing, but it is just as bad or worse than collecting for Aquaria.

I am totally for aquaculture, and am majoring in that field. we have to realize that coral aquaculture is really in its infancy; the best we can do is break peices off and grow them up. even if we could fragment and raise enough corals to cushion the impacts of wild collection, we still have the larger issue of the natural decline, and third-world countries whose people would rather feed their starving family dinner tonite than worry about the future. many of these people do not realize that they can have impacts on the reefs and that the fish just "moved away," and will come back.

[The Propagator]

There are many changes in wild habitats that although seem natural are realy a direct result of our interaction, and our polution.

Thats realy a sort of a " if a tree falls in the woods and your not around to hear it does it still make a sound?" kind'a thing ya know.

[Mr. Fosi]

The Diadema crash hasn't been linked to human action, but a lot of Caribbean reef decline has been.

 

It has bee argued that it is overfishing that made the the urchins such a keystone species.

[coral reef]

humans will destroy the reefs but at the same time we will save them via aquariums i think that tops it off pretty well

[chuckfullservice]

In the end man almost always does the right thing!

Many species of animals in general were almost extinct 35 years ago including the bald eagle ! But guess what when we make an effort man can do anything!!! There back !

We will save the reefs and other animals but with no knowledge of them how can we do it???

I can vouch for everyone here when I say we all want reefs to be healthy and plentiful ! Other wise this site would not even exist! So what would you like to happen???

Government takes over and then taxes the ###### out of all shipments to raise costs!

Then no one but the rich who careless about the reefs and more that its pretty to look at will own it! None of us would have a tank or rock or fish the end.

 

We will be the ones bringing back the reefs in 50 years , back from our tanks !

BTW ever here of tank raised at your lfs almost all of the fish at 4 of my lfs are tank raised and about 30% of the corals are as well . So if you don't think were trying to fix it your blind!

Grant it we are alittle behind on the LR but sooner or later your gonna see it, man made reef rock I know they already make new reefs using cement and sunken ships.

 

I get your point raise awareness and that is great but how about wording it differently or better yet get off your ass and do something about it! Learn to propagate your corals and sell them to fellow reefers, its already here on this site ! Tank raised corals and fish are ussually hardier anyways and already adapted to tank life ! Of course there will always be challenges like inbreeding but we are doing what we can at this point in time . Don't point a fingure at me I try to purchase all of my speciemens tank riased or propagated .

How about pushing the industry to create man made LR ??? Start a petition create some Ideas help test it !!!

So stop yapping and start doing I'LL be right with you if you can give some Ideas instead of complaining!

Nike said it best ----- JUST DO IT

[The Propagator]

The Diadema crash hasn't been linked to human action, but a lot of Caribbean reef decline has been.

 

It has bee argued that it is overfishing that made the the urchins such a keystone species.

 

 

Dude you cant be serious?

In the 80's wildlife officials told divers to kill all they saw to protect the reefs because they thought they were eating all the coral.

When their numbers were drasticly reduced the algae took over and smothered out entire reef slopes in the caribean.

I would call that a dirtect result of mans interaction.

[Mr. Fosi]

Prop: The numbers were reduced due to an unknown disease, not human pressure.

 

See:

 

Done, T.J. (1992) Phase shifts in coral reef communities and their ecological significance. Hydrobiologia, vol. 247, pp 121-132

 

Hughes, T. P. (1994) Catastrophes, phase shifts, and large scale degridation of a Caribbean coral reef. Science, vol. 265, no. 5178, pp 1547-1551

 

McManus, J. W. & Polsenberg, J. F. (2004) Coral-algal phase shifts on coral reefs: ecological and evnironmental aspects. Progress in Oceanography, vol. 60, pp 263-279

 

 

PS: I just gave a talk on this in my advanced biological oceanography class:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=104025&hl=

[The Propagator]

Talk to a local collectr in FLA waters thats been tere for more than 20 years.

He'll tell ya the same.

We didnt cause the disease that killed them ( that we know of yet anyways) But they did hunt them down and destroy every one they saw

Becase the local officials told therm they ate coral as a main staple.

 

They were eating coral, but only because there was no algae available.

They are onmivores. they will eat bot algae and cral. If no algae is present they simply switch to coral.

 

I will have to read up on all the links you just gave me and your talk in advanced bio.

 

I am not saying thats what almost did them in wholey ya know.

But we sure as hell had a hand in it.

[Alexraptor]

The world sucks, this is the last good genertation anyway....even if a reef was never touched again, they will still be gone in 60 years for other reasons like global warming.

 

That is a theory by some scientists, and not a fact.

 

As a matter of fact i hear there is a vast greater majority of scientists that think the global warming scenarios that get out into the media are highly exaggerated.

 

it is also intreasting to note that some marine biologists beleive that global warming may actually cause the worlds coral reefs to increase by over 35% in the next 100 years.

 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/200...s-gwg120904.php

 

On a personal note however, i do prefer captive breed due to them being much more adapted for aquarium conditions, i also make shure to keep a careful eye out for any signs of cyanide poisining

[jeremai]

This thread makes me vomit PPEs.

 

Get over it - or stop using paper (raping old growth forests), medicine (rainforests, hello?), and plastic (woo hoo, limited oil reserves!).

 

Crap or get off the pot - but don't be a hypocrite by chastising others for using wild caught or first generation corals.

 

Pfft.

 

Edit: that was in repsonse to the first post. You all should be talking about global warming in - shock - the global warming thread!

[diddy02]

Alright I agree that paper consumption and oil comsumption should be addressed and decreased. However, that is not what is at issue here. So it seems some of you guys are saying that since we drive cars to work or write on paper, we should just give up the fight because we're just hypocrits. Well thats a little ridiculous. Is it not better to fight for something than nothing? Aquariums are what we know. Coral reefs are what we know. I don't think, as a whole, people on this website are incredibly educated about alternate energy sources or paper alternatives. So lets stick to our bread and butter here, end the name calling and stick to conservation of something we control all on our own. If we stop using oil, the demand is not going to disappear, but if we make serious efforts to aquaculture more and more corals and fish, the wild-caught demand will dramatically decrease.

 

If everyone takes care of what they can, then things will start to turn around. (I feel like i need some cheesy music playing)

 

Oh and medicines don't effect the rainforests. They just isolate the chemical substances from plants or some crazy animal or something and then make it synthetically.

[The Propagator]

The Diadema crash hasn't been linked to human action, but a lot of Caribbean reef decline has been.

 

It has bee argued that it is overfishing that made the the urchins such a keystone species.

 

 

I will now respectfully eat crow.

I cant find anything to support my screwed up mind at the moment

Eh`........

[Deleted User 7]

Nicely put Diddy! I could of sworn I heard the song from Chariots of Fire playing in the background. I agree, lets get rid of the demand, make aquaculture the norm.

[Mr. Fosi]

Prop: Don't worry about it.

 

I am well aware that you have me hand-down in terms of SW aquarium experience.

[coraln'fish]

quit driving your car, using electrisity and using lumber. then get back to me on the reefs.

Edit- electricity

[mahi mahi boy]

Fosi, I went and I read about the dust storms from Africa that you mentioned. I thought they said they've found all kinds of man made pollution in the dust, radioactive particles too. Millions of tons of dust get dropped in the waters every year.

Your friend thinks it's the dust that's hurting the coral? If so, what in the dust is?

 

"Florida receives about three feet of dust every million years."

[Mr. Fosi]

In our surface-level conversations is mentioned fungi & bacteria that don't always act as pathogens, but can stress corals (or other organisms) out, which allows other (opportunistic) diseases set in.

 

I haven't talked with him in depth, but I can quiz him tomorrow if you like.

[Caesar777]

I saw a special about the African dust on PBS. A lot of it is from the cattle farming they do, which quickly ruins the earth (soil), trampling it so that it becomes compacted (too dense too dense to grow anything new), dry (from the climate), and thus dusty (lack of plants/trees to hold the soil together), and unable to grow anything. It was years ago, though, that I saw it.

 

Not sure if it was in this thread or the other one, but elephants clear small areas of forest and turn it to grassland with sparse tree coverage, they don't wipe out forests, leave them barren, and move on. So say elephant "specialists" (what do you call someone who studies elephants? ).

[Mr. Fosi]

An elephantologist? :huh:

[The Propagator]

"Zoologist"

 

 

Geez FOSI ! ( joke!)